a couple months ago the motor in my 96 civic dx decided to take a dump. I remember seeing water pooling underneath the car a few days prior, but upon checking the radiator, everything was fine. Oil level was fine. Transmission fluid was fine. Hell i checked everything including the washer fluid. everything was where it should be, so i discounted these pools. when it happened i was driving, doing no more than 90, and i start to lose power, my temp guage starts to climb and i pull off to the shoulder where the car promptly dies. i let it cool down for a while and check my fluids again. the oil was a little low, not too bad and everything else was fine. although i remember hearing a loud almost clicking sound as i pulled to the side.
ive talked to a few mechanics since then and have gotten mixed verdicts: one says the motors completely blown with no hope of survival, and another says he thinks it might be a bad connecting rod bearing. after all this crap ive thrown at you, my question is, if all it is is the bearing, does anyone think my block will be able to be used in my mini me? ive got a z6 head fairly nicely built and ready for some companionship, i figure the block from the dx would be pretty good to work with, if its salvagable. let me know what you think.

 

maybe a bad thermostat? not opening? dont know about the clicking . . .

 

judging from the ticking sound you described as you pulled to the side of the road i would say spun rod bearing (as i have currently put 1600 miles on my spun rod bearing in my z6). If your oil was low and you were on it pretty good chances are the oil pressure could have dropped enough to alow the the bearing to mess up. Anyway for your mini-me question. Your block itself will be fine but will have to be rebuilt. THe spun rod bearing usually means you wiped out the crank. Sometimes the crank can be turned down a few thousandths and different sized rod bearings can be used, but your best bet is to pick up a dx block for $50 and build from there. Rebuilding a dx block IMO is probably not going to be worth it unless you change your internals. It all depends on the cash you want to spend and the time you want to take to do it. If you need any more sohc info let me know.

as for the water under your car, if you ran your air conditioning that could have been it if you checked everything else.

~Steve

 

just make sure the dx block is built up well.

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 97civhatch &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">maybe a bad thermostat? not opening? dont know about the clicking . . . </TD></TR></TABLE>
could be